One Stop Thought Shop

Comments at Baseline Scenario:

Morgan Stanley yesterday said what we have all known for some time. There will be government defaults of various types on debts which have become unmanageable.

In a story from the UK Telegraph yesterday, a report claims the Tories are placing the greatest pain in managing their budget gaps on the backs of the less well to do, presumably protecting their more well to do constituency. No surprise to anyone if it is true. And yet this may not be enough unless the economy recovers and the great mass of the public can regain some reasonable level of organic economic activity.

In the States, the uber wealthy will be spending large sums to lobby against new taxes, and even removing tax cuts that were known to be untenable, and based on false economic assumptions, at the time they were passed under Bush. Instead they will point to more broadly public and regressive taxes such as VATs, and seek to curtail public programs like Medicare and Social Security, while leaving their own subsidies and welfare, such as those in the financial sector and corporate and dividend tax breaks, sacrosanct.

In the US the broad mass of consumers have been the economy’s golden goose….

More:

“Excessive consumer debt is an outcome of prolonged inequality – in trying to remain middle class, too many people borrowed too much, while unscrupulous lenders were only too willing to take advantage of such people.”

“But there is a striking similarity between the longstanding stated intention to “starve the beast” (meaning press for reduction in government by creating binding constraints, like a perceived crisis) and what we are seeing play out today.”

Prolonged inequality. Creating binding constraints. Perceived crisis. Yes. That’s the whole thing, for decades.

And to sum it up:

This is made needlessly complex, and that obscures the truth.

We are under assault by organized crime, nothing more and nothing less.

Neoliberalism is the ideology of legalized gangsterism, corporate welfare is robbery, the bailout was stepped up robbery, and now the calls for austerity are simply another robbery gambit.

All of this is crime, period. The finance and government elites are criminals, period. We should never let ourselves be distracted from the criminological view of this.

Would you stand and listen to someone literally breaking into your house explain abstruse ideological angles on the event? We the people shouldn’t do that with these equally brazen but infinitely worse robbers.

Robert Rapier:

I am no economist, but bear with me while I try to explain why I think we are in for a very long and difficult economic period.

My thesis for ‘The Long Recession’ goes something like this: Historically, when oil prices rose quickly and remained high the economy struggled. High oil prices lead to recessions and depressions, because they suck so much money out of the economy.

A person whose energy bills go up by $100 or $200 per month has that much less to spend on other things. It is essentially like a tax applied to everyone that uses energy — with a large chunk of the money exiting the U.S. and contributing to our trade deficit.

Historically after a period of high oil prices, people start to modify behaviors, and at the same time producers rush in to take advantage of higher prices. This generally leads to a decline in oil prices and the economy recovers.

But I believe this time is different.

I believe we are looking at an extended period of (at best) no-growth or very little growth.

Dana Blankenhorn:

The President’s biggest mistake in office, by far, is one that is completely hidden from view.

That is, his refusal to directly confront the real enemy. Not just the Koch brothers, but the economic interests they represent. We are still subsidizing coal, and oil, and natural gas. The aid we give green manufacturing pales in comparison.

The question and answer are simple, not complex. Changing our economy’s incentives will unleash a flood of capital and millions of jobs.

We need an industrial recovery, not a consumer one. Why delay?

Nuts.

Facebook.com is suing Teachbook.com for using the word book.

You cannot call this a Democracy!

‘Republican policy is based on the premise that the top income segment does not have enough income.’

The Congressional Budget Office shows a stunning shift in income in this country over the last three decades. This is not repaired with political tweaking.

‘America needs more inequality? Seems to me we have enough.’

If all these rich emigrated, would we miss the money we’ve already lost?

Power Trip: People in a position of power display behavior patterns commonly associated with damage to the portions of the cerebral cortex that govern empathy and the ability to imagine the world from others’ perspective.

Power kills the ability even to understand that there are other perspectives than those of the hierarchy.

Bonker theories gone bust.

←housing losses (,000) [stats]

No one has a good excuse for this except distraction and outright dereliction.

Our record lows are not merely economic.

As world’s population moves toward 9 billion, be ready to spend…

$350 trillion.
Seven times the global GDP !

Cities will spend $350 trillion on the construction, operation, and maintenance of infrastructure,  power and distribution, residential and commercial buildings, water and waste, roads and transport, and information technology.

Let’s get right to the point…

The Conquest of Cool:

So if you want a car that sticks out a little, you know just what to do.

1. Buy this. You will benefit.

Reality in Advertising, Rosser Reeves

“I’ve read some unkind reviews about this book. I challenge anyone to find a greater book for the advertising professional. I have some four decades of advertising experience under my belt and I learn each time I read this book. I value the words as if they were freshly found gold coins.

“If I had a choice of being a copywriter like Rosser Reeves and one of these ‘gurus’ of today who is so in love with his own words and style to showcase his own talents, I’ll choose Reeves. —Susanna K. Hutcheson